Bee Keeping

Provincial living: homesteading, farming, gardening, self-efficiency and animal husbandry.
User avatar
frank lee bent
Expatriate
Posts: 11330
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 4:10 am
Reputation: 2094
United States of America

Bee Keeping

Post by frank lee bent »

Hi everyone, I have been working on a new project, bee keeping in Kien Svay.
You can follow my progress here,https://www.facebook.com/jameswdumar/ or if anyone is interested in seeing more, I can write a bit about it here on CEO on request.

Image
I am currently working with 28 hives and expanding rapidly.
Most of the components are imported and made from shit pine.
I find I can make a lot of it locally in semi hardwood for a much increased longevity.

Image
User avatar
Duncan
Sir Duncan
Posts: 8149
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2014 8:22 pm
Reputation: 2357
Location: Wonder Why Central

Re: Bee Keeping

Post by Duncan »

Agreed,,, pine is useless for long term use, I always made mine from macrocapa http://cypress-sawmill.co.nz/macrocarpa_specs.html which has a natural turpentine oil in it .

Those are fancy handles on your hives, why not use a skill saw with a 10 to 12 '' blade and do several cuts about half the thickness of the timber.
Cambodia,,,, Don't fall in love with her.
Like the spoilt child she is, she will not be happy till she destroys herself from within and breaks your heart.
User avatar
frank lee bent
Expatriate
Posts: 11330
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 4:10 am
Reputation: 2094
United States of America

Re: Bee Keeping

Post by frank lee bent »

Agreed. The hives with the furniture handles were inherited. They are 12 frame and normally run unsupered.
This is a new industry in Cambodia, they are adopting the fucked up management practices of Vietnam and Thailand.
They extract ALL frames once a month or so, killing countless larvae and producing thin unripened honey in the process.
Needless to say, I will manage the stock properly.
I am getting these made now locally, you will see the handles on the partially painted boxes are routed in.
That was the preference of the maker rather than what you or I would do :-) they are massively tooled up.
Image
kiwiincambodia
Expatriate
Posts: 4267
Joined: Mon May 19, 2014 1:06 pm
Reputation: 471
Korea North

Re: Bee Keeping

Post by kiwiincambodia »

MODS, Frank lee bent should ban himself for outing himself..... :stir: :stir:

Other than that, good work, it would be nice to be updated on progress.
User avatar
frank lee bent
Expatriate
Posts: 11330
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 4:10 am
Reputation: 2094
United States of America

Re: Bee Keeping

Post by frank lee bent »

I have outed my self numerous times in the past. It is a measure of how unremarkable I am that you did not know.
for those who do not login to facebook, there is still a feed on the bottom of my site
http://biologiccambodia.com/
User avatar
Username Taken
Raven
Posts: 13900
Joined: Mon May 19, 2014 6:53 pm
Reputation: 5963
Cambodia

Re: Bee Keeping

Post by Username Taken »

You are certainly a man of many talents frank.
User avatar
frank lee bent
Expatriate
Posts: 11330
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 4:10 am
Reputation: 2094
United States of America

Re: Bee Keeping

Post by frank lee bent »

Thanks, mostly forced upon me by the need to survive.
But Bee keeping runs in my family. We always had them when I was a kid.
I had 40 hives back of Cairns for over 15 years.
User avatar
juansweetpotato
Expatriate
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sun Jul 27, 2014 8:45 pm
Reputation: 75

Re: Bee Keeping

Post by juansweetpotato »

No money, but plenty of honey? I hope it all works out for you. It's about time we had some reasonably priced natural honey in the shops. :D
"Can you spare some cutter for an old man?"
User avatar
frank lee bent
Expatriate
Posts: 11330
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 4:10 am
Reputation: 2094
United States of America

Re: Bee Keeping

Post by frank lee bent »

well I am working for bees rather than honey, but hopefully i will get a bit. you can rapidly expand your colonies by provision of honey and pollen to new small hives you split off the production hives. You just need to produce queen bees to head up the new colonies, but it takes some time for the new queen to lay enough eggs to provide sufficient foraging bees for honey surplus.

in fact, i will prepare to be feeding sugar and pollen until september if i can get sufficient money for the wood ware required to accomodate the increased number of hives.

but maybe i won't have to feed, they are working very strongly now due to the unseasonably rainy conditions.

in any case a particular locale can be very productive or entirely devoid of floral resources.

if you are serious you either have to be prepared to move them or feed them from time to time.

though they are insects they are still livestock, but arguably the most efficient or productive of all domesticates when you factor in pollination.
User avatar
Jamie_Lambo
The Cool Boxing Guy
Posts: 15039
Joined: Mon Apr 20, 2015 10:34 am
Reputation: 3132
Location: ลพบุรี
Great Britain

Re: Bee Keeping

Post by Jamie_Lambo »

looks like you lost a bit of timber out in the provinces FLB, looking well
:tophat: Mean Dtuk Mean Trei, Mean Loy Mean Srey
Punchy McShortstacks School of Hard Knocks :x
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 98 guests